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Tag: acoustic cover

This track really brought to a head how much I love the requests concept. Not only was this a song that was totally unknown to us all (well definitely myself and Peter, it seems Vicki is quite a Billy Joel fan), but it was requested way back before we had even upgraded to a three piece outfit. Not only that but even the duo videos were a rarity, scattered between weeks of solo vids. Initially I wondered if a solo reimagining was in line for this track, then it moved on to myself and Peter considering a multi track pre-record, before it finally landed here with a full band performance.

What I most enjoy about this is that the track called for some substantial lead guitar work. Now, I’m not aiming for faux humility here and saying “Oh I can’t play lead guitar”, in a pinch I can and I can more than hold my own with the basics. I do consider myself a vocalist and rhythm guitarist first and foremost however and in recent years I have strayed further still from playing any lead guitar. So then we arrive at a song which requires a rhythm guitar, lead guitar and a saxophone, at times simultaneously. Ok, we definitely stood no chance one of us would turn into a sax player, but through some thorough reworking that subbed in the bass for sax we managed to pull it off. Well, in theory we did until I completely f**ed up the first two bars of the solo. But in all I was quite chuffed with our re-arranging techniques and with an eye to playing live as a three piece, arrangements and performances like this are massively important for the growth of the group.

Then of course there’s the song. As I’ve mentioned multiple times before myself and Peter are massive fans of Bruce Springsteen and to me this song is the closest that these two favourite sons of New Jersey have come to each other. You May Be Right slots in alongside songs like Sherry Darling and Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) with absolute ease in my mind and it was great fun taking on the challenge of creating a live big band sound with only three people. Hopefully we’ve done it some justice and as always – watch, like, share, subscribe.

Man it’s been one hell of a year. Things got extremely quiet on the niallon front earlier this year, with Peter away we had one solitary upload carrying us through most of the first 4 months of the year (and even that video was filmed late 2016!) We got back on course in June though with Mr Brightside and really that video served as a bit of a watershed video for our channel. We were actually primarily looking to get a cover of This Is What It Feels Like done in that session and Mr Brightside was an off the cuff attempt that wound up being the main video from the day. The reason this became such a landmark video for us was because until that point we had been very business like with the niallon channel at times, everything was laid out in a neat plan because that way then we couldn’t screw it up. We were being smart and prepared, but as a result we were missing out on the great music that can be created through spontaneity.

As the year progressed we continued this trend, coupled with some requests and we also turned into a somewhat full fledged band to boot! Essentially we wound up then with the variety we find now – the solos, the requests and the bands. Sometimes these categories overlap with each other, and sometimes we can wind up with a few weeks in one particular neighbourhood. All 3 of us have 9 – 5 commitments we work around too and on a lot of occasions logic and practicality will dictate what we can or can’t get done on a given week. One thing that we will always maintain though is that as long as the fun is there, we will keep producing this content. The last thing this project was ever supposed to feel like is a job, we have enough of those already. This is our outlet, our opportunity for creativity. We do it for ourselves, but the thought that even one person might watch is enough to keep it going. Thank you to you all for the likes, watches, shares and subscriptions up to now, and here’s hoping it can continue. Merry Xmas Everybody 😁

Yes I forgot to do a write up on ‘Zombie’ (and ‘The Funeral’ come to think of it) and yes we’re back to solo videos this week. I can be consistent in my inconsistency though, haven’t you heard?

This song just straight up breaks my heart if I’m being honest. There are a couple of thousand things I reckon Brian Fallon wrote this song in relation to, and there are a thousand more things personally to me that I can relate it to and in essence, that’s a large part of why I love songwriting. A part of you wants every listener to get what you meant when you wrote it, another part of you enjoys the different interpretations rolling in, especially if they are well wide of the mark to where your head was when you wrote it. I listen to ‘National Anthem’ and I am regularly struck dumb by the lines “I remember when she looked so good in that dress / Now she just screams that I promised her more than this / Take it easy baby, it ain’t over yet” and to me they are some of the finest words ever committed to paper in relation to the trials and tribulations of love and marriage. They’re also the only explicit reference in the song to those topics. Technically speaking, the song is more focused on the modern day tech obsession and maybe a little loss that Fallon feels is deriving from that (“Everybody lately is living up in space / Flying through transmissions on invisible airwaves”). To me though, those aforementioned lines are just so powerful that they dominate the entire song. Whereas they are mostly an aside in reality, to me the rest of the song is the aside. But that’s music, and that’s lyrics, that’s art. That’s also enough from me, and I swear the I’m Talkin’ Here slacking off is over!

I was first introduced to this song via Rod Stewart’s cover. Suffice to say I was surprised to find out that it was originally written and recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Up until that point I solely knew them for Bad Moon Rising which in turn I solely knew as the song from An American Werewolf In London. I can confirm I’ve now educated myself far more thoroughly with CCR’s back catalogue though and this song has remained one of my favourites of theirs.

We have covered a few tracks in the past where the intent has been to shine a spotlight on some songs that get dismissed as run of the mill, when in fact there’s a very sincere and well thought out piece buried within layers of production. This one somewhat falls into that category, though I’d hardly argue that the sincerity is absent in the original. Frontman John Fogerty maintains that the song was written in relation to rising tensions within the band and specifically the impending departure of his brother Tom from the group, despite the theorising that it related to the Vietnam war amongst other things. Nobody can argue that there is a genuine level of emotion and strife to be heard in the original but for me there’s an alternate spin available by bringing it down a bit more in pace, tearing the song open and letting it be even more raw. And that’s how we ended up here! As always, watch, like, share, subscribe!

I’ve well and truly run out of ways to describe my obsession with the music of Bruce Springsteen by now. For me, he and the E Street Band are the music. The music that popped up in my life at a time that I needed something to, that I needed something to point me in a direction. It’s my get hyped music, my comedown music, my inspirational music and of course the “Jesus will this hangover ever go away music”. I do feel a slightly stronger connection to it too, namely the New Jersey factor. My uncle Michael emigrated to the States many years ago as so many did and so many still do. He settled in New Jersey, married and started a family. He worked his hands to the bone, made a great life for himself and I think if I tried for the rest of my life, I’d never find someone with a bad word to say about him. Every time I have been to the US has been to New Jersey. I’ve seen other places on those trips, but it has always been New Jersey with Michael, my aunt and cousin and more that was the base station. We’ve had some amazing trips there, the most memorable of which for me was when Michael took me down to Asbury Park. It was my Graceland, seeing where it all started. Standing outside The Stone Pony where The Boss got started out many years before. Walking the shore, taking in the sights so vividly described in “Sandy” and other tracks. Memories like that mean that Springsteen’s music runs much deeper than the surface layer for me, incorporating history and family and blood.

Michael passed away just over two years ago. In my life I’ve always had a steady nine to five and been a musician on the side. 2015 brought about a lot of change. I quit my job, started a new one that I far more enjoyed, and most importantly I rediscovered music. We started, myself and Peter, in earnest to make something of this YouTube project. What the ultimate goal is, we aren’t all that sure. What we do know is that we love doing what we do.

He wasn’t a hard core Springsteen fan, nor had we ever much discussed music at all to be honest, but I can’t help but connect Springsteen back to New Jersey, back to Michael, which leads to interpretations like this one. On the one hand, I do sometimes feel a little bad taking these upbeat poppy tracks like “Read My Mind”, “Toca’s Miracle” and “Mr Brightside” and completely flipping them on their head, turning them into melancholic trods through deep thought and lyrical meaning. On the other hand, to me there are always real songs hiding behind the synth and pop. “Dancing In The Dark” to me is a perfect pop song with an insanely catchy hook, but it’s also a song that encapsulates loneliness, isolation and pure desperation. Sometimes, in Ireland in particular, we don’t like to admit when things are shit. We’d sooner ‘keep calm and carry on’ rather than tell someone we’re having a tough time. The origins of this track lie in Springsteen being pressured to write a hit. I feel it reaches beyond that specific territory though. To me, this song speaks for all of us being asked to work outside of our comfort zone, being asked to be someone we’re not and most importantly, being asked to betray ourselves. If we’ve managed to convey even a tenth of that in this version, I’ll be happy. As always watch, like, share, subscribe.

By the end of this requests experiment I feel that our taste in music will be massively diversified. I mean, that was half the point of the exercise to begin with but as it has turned out, the songs requested have come fairly out of left field. I personally wouldn’t know Damien Rice outside of his biggest release, Cannonball, and I have in fact covered that track in the past. Being honest though I wasn’t keen on seeing one of tracks come through as a request as I expected it to be more in line with his low key material, and we’ve plenty of that posted already! What a relief to find this track then and damn it’s fun to play and sing! Couldn’t even begin to give you an interpretation of it but hey, we don’t always need that. Don’t forget, if you want to hear any particular song sound off here in the comments, on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. Watch, like, share, subscribe!

What can I say about this piece of music? Back when Game Of Thrones started I actually wasn’t a fan (yeah I know, some people right?). I dunno, it didn’t grab my attention for some reason. One thing I did love about the show though was the music, and eventually, 3 years later, I binged Seasons 1-3 and have been hooked ever since. It has also joined the ranks of House Of Cards and Westworld as the only show where even the opening titles get my full undivided attention and are never skipped. Ramin Djawadi is extremely hot property these last few years, contributing iconic music to this show, the aforementioned Westworld, Person Of Interest and he even branched out into the video game arena with Gears Of War 4, a series already noted for the high end work of Steve Jablonsky.

When it comes to covering Djawadi’s music then, there are restraints. We obviously don’t have a full orchestra to work with (how sweet that would be though) and there are an abundance of covers online of this piece already. What we settled on blends the style and sound of what we have uploaded to date with a higher level of production than we have strived for ever before. It was tough, there were reshoots, tweaks and alterations, but we’re damn satisfied with the finished product, hope you are too!